The Women's Renaissance in Iraq

Mrs. Asiya Wahbi, leader of the women's renaissance in Iraq, presides over the Iraqi Women's Union and the Child Protection Society, and works diligently in the service of constructive projects. Here she speaks of the women's renaissance in Iraq.

The dawn of the women's renaissance in Iraq broke with the establishment of national rule a quarter of a century ago, when the first club, under the name of the Women's Renaissance, was set up in 1924; it performed a service approaching that performed by the Red Crescent societies. A short while later the Iraqi Red Crescent Society was founded, and at first both sexes together belonged to it; the work of the Crescent was confined to extending health and social assistance to the members of the nation. During this period the Iraqi woman had come to feel the harm resulting from the spread of intoxicants and the plagues of alcohol among the people, and so she founded a society, under the name of the Society for Combating Intoxicants, in 1937. This society gathered many excellent women, who found in rising up to fight the plagues of alcohol a social and humane duty. And when the Iraqi woman found that she was surrounded by other social ills that had to be fought, she changed this society's name and its purpose, replacing it with the Society for 'Combating Social Ills,' and took upon herself to fight in earnest these ills entrenched among her fellow countrymen. Nor would she turn a blind eye to the condition of the Iraqi child, to guiding motherhood in the right direction, and to combating the illiteracy and misery widespread among the people; and in this campaign there joined the societies of the Red Crescent, of Combating Social Ills, the Houses of the Nation, the Women's League, the Arab Home Society, and Child Protection — and her work in these societies has been a source of pride, which the hand of the Iraqi people has recorded with praise and thanks.

With a view to uniting the endeavors of the Iraqi woman in raising the edifice of a social and cultural renaissance, and to make possible a coming-together between her and the Arab woman and the Western woman, a club was set up under the name of the Iraqi Women's Union in 1945, gathering within its walls the memberships of all the women's societies. From this club voices were raised directing woman to the exercise of all her social and political rights; it made contact with the international associations, made its voice heard, and took part in numerous congresses, in which its representation was successful in the highest degree.

I shall devote the following word to the women's branch of the Child Protection Society:

The women's branch has the Queen Alia charitable dispensary, whose aims are to reduce infant mortality by every technical and scientific means, to rear children

in a sound and healthy manner, to improve the offspring, and to help poor families by distributing milk and the other necessary requirements.

It is directed by a specialist woman physician, who works on modern and useful health principles:

1 — A file is kept for every family, showing its health, social, and cultural condition.

2 — The expectant mother is medically examined every fifteen days between the fourth month and the seventh, and once every week in the last two months; and the place and manner of the delivery is determined.

3 — The child is medically examined two weeks after his birth; then he continues under medical observation once a week for the first three months, then once a fortnight until he completes his second year. In his third and fourth years, once a month; and at the end of the fourth he is given a health certificate for entering kindergarten.

4 — The nurse visits every family in its own home — since every family in the district has a register at the center, as I have said — and the visit is repeated whenever need requires.

5 — Teaching the mother that every family has a second home besides its original one: the central office for the protection of the child, where she finds the friend, the guide, and the messenger of health and social peace.

6 — The family is given what it needs, so far as possible, of milk and clothing and some gifts.

As for what it is hoped will be accomplished this year:

1 — Giving the children daily meals.

2 — Establishing wards for children whose weight is below normal, and then returning them to their families.

3 — Creating an institution to receive children from morning until evening, their parents being occupied.

4 — Placing all the children in kindergarten schools after the completion of the fourth year of age.

The child protection institution derives its funds from the annual government grants, and from fêtes and the annual charity bazaar.

The charity bazaar is the society's important resource; the administrative body prepares it, working at it continuously and afresh throughout the year, and produces the things people wish to buy — weaving, embroidery, sewing, drawing, dried foods, and so forth.